“Is this all for today…?”
“Y-yes, I’m afraid.”
“Well, no matter. Thank you very much. These always prove to be valuable.”
Stephanie expressed her gratitude with a smile. The Ealdred Crow information, who had interacted with her for the first time, awkwardly returned the gesture. Part of the awkwardness was because he caught a glimpse into the room behind Stephanie, the walls of which were filled with Tsutomu’s photographs and newspaper clips.
After receiving today’s new clips from the informant, Stephanie went back into her room, closed the door behind her, and took a few deep breaths before scanning through them over and over again. Wisps of energy around her — which were support skills that she always kept floating around her as training — started flying faster as if reacting to her mental state.
Seemingly satisfied after a while, Stephanie took her eyes off the articles and affixed them to an empty section of the wall. The room, almost entirely filled — the ceiling included — with articles and photographs, was truly a trophy of Stephanie’s eccentricity.
Stephanie had thought that, after the completion of her training with Tsutomu, he had entrusted everything to her. After all, the documents she had been given contained all of Tsutomu’s techniques up to that point. Handing such a thing over to another person could jeopardize his own position. Regardless, he had indeed given them to her.
Since then, Stephanie had undergone intensive training — and barely took time to rest — in order to master those techniques. Every single day, she practiced her time tracking, energy shooting, quickshot, placements… And even things like deepening her understanding of other Jobs and getting better at controlling her flight. There was always something more for her to learn.
Then, during the post-Stampede period of limited access to God’s Dungeon, Stephanie made constant efforts to maintain her position in Ealdred Crow’s top team. While her peers were concerned about her, they all celebrated with Stephanie when she successfully kept her position after the evaluation.
And Stephanie herself, for that occasion, took her first day off in quite a while to visit the market and watch the Monitors.
There, she saw Tsutomu, working as a Healer for his very own Clan, Absolute Helix. And at the same time, she saw an infinitely distant gap in between him and her.
Understanding her own abilities to a certain extent allowed her to see the overwhelming difference between her and Tsutomu. Time management, skill control, strategy — he was superior to her in every way. Despite having been delighted to successfully maintain her position, Stephanie felt ashamed of herself.
[I’m not good enough. I need more training. More, more…]
Following that day, she made good on her words and began training tirelessly, practically spending all her waking hours in the Dungeon. After her work with the main team was done for the day, she would join vacancies in the lower-ranked teams and work as their Healer. And even during break time, she would constantly practice her skill control and time tracking.
At one point, she even spent whole days doing nothing but practicing her placement and quickshot skills. The human body could not go on for too long without rest. So, Stephanie soon found herself losing consciousness in her room, wasting one whole day.
Through that blunder, Stephanie realized her physical limits and decided to sleep for three hours a day. There were times when she could not fall asleep, however, resulting in her getting dark circles under her eyes, and her constant practice of time tracking remained unchanged. Feeling pressed for time and consumed by training, Stephanie’s mental health gradually deteriorated.
Unable to control herself due to hitting her physical and mental limits, Stephanie found herself beginning to fling abusive language toward her peers. Eventually, she received a warning from the office staff that she would likely be demoted if she kept acting like this.
[I can’t do this anymore…]
Finally, pushed to the brink of a mental breakdown, she considered giving up. She thought she could not live up to Tsutomu’s expectations, and she was seeing absolutely nothing on the way ahead of her.
But then, she happened to see her party members reading some newspapers during break time. Seeing a certain photograph accompanying one of the articles, Stephanie’s eyes widened.
[Mister Tsutomu is watching me…]
The photo was of none other than Tsutomu, appearing to her as a glimmer of hope.
Such was how Stephanie started collecting articles about Tsutomu. She had always idolized him, but this tendency of hers worsened even further now.
From morning till night, Stephanie would explore the Dungeon with the main team, and then join a party of nocturnal Beastkins as their Healer. Whenever she returned to her room late at night, she would always look exhausted and dispirited.
She could never show this side of hers to Tsutomu, however — so she started washing her face and wishing good night to photos of Tsutomu before going to sleep. And when she woke up, she would fix her hair into her usual flamboyant, curly style and put on a nice dress before saying good morning.
Then, whenever the days off of all her acquainted teams coincided, leaving her with no one to train with, she would go to the market and watch Tsutomu on the Monitors. Getting to see Tsutomu — so vibrant and full of life — even for a few moments was enough to motivate her for a whole month.
With this newfound routine, Stephanie’s mental state stabilized, though she still was unusually dedicated to her training. While there used to be a tense atmosphere whenever she was mentally overwhelmed, it completely disappeared after she started taking to Tsutomu’s photos.
As a result of training more than anyone else, Stephanie’s abilities improved so much that her Healer rivals were no longer a match for her. Her demeanor greatly mellowed down compared to before, and there were no problems with her behavior on the surface. Thanks to this, the manager of the Clan’s top team withdrew their consideration to demote Stephanie.
Ever since Stephanie started greeting Tsutomu’s photos, she has grown significantly more mentally mature, as if a divine spirit had possessed her body. She still felt ashamed of herself, however, as she had not yet reached Tsutomu’s level. When Rook, out of consideration for her, suggested that they do some joint operations with Absolute Helix, Stephanie turned red and refused. Then, later on, Rook got a look inside Stephanie’s room… and so he decided to avoid meeting up with Absolute Helix, thinking it would be dangerous if she were to meet Tsutomu.
But then, one day, as Stephanie was reading Tsutomu-related articles that she had received from an informant, she came across an intriguing piece of information: Lorena, one of her rival Healers, had been seen forming a party with Tsutomu.
[Lorena… If I recall correctly, she’s the Healer from Silver Beast…]
Stephanie’s heart fluttered a little upon reading that Lorena was Tsutomu’s first student, who had even recently been praised directly by him. Hoping to find out what exactly that praise was for, she decided to keep an eye on Lorena.
As it turned out, however, Lorena’s capabilities were lower than what Stephanie had expected. Though their approaches were different, Lorena’s time management was objectively sloppy, and her skill shots seemed to be lacking in power. She did not even use placement and quickshot skills, making her nothing more than a second-rate Healer in Stephanie’s eyes.
Despite that, Stephanie felt jealous of the fact that she was Tsutomu’s first student, and that she had received praise from him. And so, when she met Lorena in the Dungeon, she ended up picking a fight with her — which escalated to a physical confrontation. In the end, it took a scolding from Rook for her to settle down.
And then came Eunice’s feature on the news. Stephanie saw her as no more than a third-rate Healer, as she could only use what was effectively a downgraded version of the placement-type <<Haste>>. And since Stephanie remembered that she liked to talk badly of Tsutomu, the former considered her a rude person.
As such, their meeting earlier today ended with a similarly bad confrontation. Stephanie had just received a round of scolding from Rook, in fact.
Still, thanks to her training, it was true that Stephanie’s skills were exceptional — so much so that she could be considered a formidable rival for Tsutomu. Apart from those two incidents, she had not caused any trouble, and her relationship with her peers was good. As a result, Rook could not exactly reprimand her too harshly.
After Rook’s lecture ended, Stephanie went out for more training, then returned to her room and put the articles she had received from the informant up on the wall. She then tied up her peach-colored hair and took a shower, then looked at herself in the mirror.
(I am undoubtedly superior. So why… why would you praise those other people, Mister Tsutomu…? I am superior, and have put in more effort than any of them! So why… why, why, why!?)
Stephanie’s face burned with jealousy, a sight that surely would have made the informant scream in terror. However, as she was looking at herself in the mirror, she quickly realized that and shook her head to clear her mind.
Then, after fixing her hair, she returned to her bedroom and went to bed, gazing at Tsutomu’s photos on the ceiling.
“Good night, Mister Tsutomu.”
Unlike the face of a Fiend she had had just moments before, when she fell asleep, she looked as peaceful as an Angel.
―▽▽―
“It’s pretty cold today,” Tsutomu said as he sat in the living room, fiddling with his fountain pen while wondering if he had caught a cold.
“Want me to warm you up?”
“No, thank you.”
“Boo~~”
Amy turned grumpy at the reply she got from Tsutomu.
“Now then,” she proceeded to say, imitating Xeno, “time to see what my man Tsutomu is up to… Hmm!”
“You’re… pretty good at that.”
“I know, right? Here, check this out — <<EMBER AURA>>! BLING!”
Amy swept up her bangs — another imitation of Xeno’s habits. Among the others in the living room, Hannah chuckled, while Diniel was not even paying attention to what was happening.
Xeno himself, on the other hand, had gone home for the day, while the remaining five Clan members were either training or visiting the Dorren Workshop. Since today was a day off from Dungeon exploration, everyone was free to spend their time at their own leisure.
“So, what’re you up to?”
“Well… we’ll be fighting the Winter General soon, so I’m mapping out our plans.”
“Oh-ho… By the waaayyy… Who’s gonna be in the team~~?”
“Oh yeeeaaahhh… I wanna know too~~!”
“Settle down, both of you. I’m not telling anyone anything.”
Tsutomu fluttered his papers at Amy and Hannah, keeping them away as they approached him.
“C’mon, Teach! Just a little hint?”
“Do tell, my man! Do tell!”
“Stop it.”
Tsutomu brushed Hannah aside as she tried to tickle his ear with a feather — and then Amy as she clung to his shoulder. Then he proceeded to move away from them and sat down where Diniel was.
“Oh yeah, I just remembered… I’d like to ask you something, Amy.”
“Huh!? W-what’s up?”
“Between Gram and Daryl, who do you think is stronger?”
“Meh, I dunno.”
Amy’s eyes had been sparkling for a moment, but then she lost interest as soon as she heard their names.
“C’mon, give me something — just a guess is fine.”
“Should be Garm, then. I mean, he’s Daryl’s mentor for a reason.”
“But you know,” Hannah spoke up. “Daryl’s been getting pretty strong these days! I don’t know for sure if he’ll win against Sir Garm, of course… but I think he’d at least put up a good fight!”
“Hmm, I see…”
Tsutomu, unsure about the answer those two had given, fiddled with his pen. Then, after thanking them, he went back to his room, mumbling something to himself on the way.
Amy and Hannah, confused, let out a sigh of exasperation at Tsutomu’s usual behavior.
“The Winter General, huh… I kinda wanna be in the team to fight it first.”
“So do I! Here’s hoping we both get in!”
Hannah dropped herself onto the sofa, causing her breasts to jiggle; Amy, taking notice of that, narrowed her eyes and approached her.
“You better not use THOSE to get your way~~!”
“What!? Of course I’m not gonna do that!”
“Really~~? There’s no telling how much illegal power you’ve got in THEM!”
Hannah would wear a heavy coat whenever she was exploring the Snow Field layers, so Amy would not notice them as much, but now that she got a good look at the former in loungewear, it was quite clear how large Hannah’s chest was. Amy proceeded to Poke Hannah’s chest and let out a loud sigh.
“Hannie… How the hell are you younger than me?”
“D-don’t worry about it! He doesn’t look at people’s chests at all — so he probably doesn’t really care about size!”
“Rally!?”
“Yes, really! He’s making me feel less confident of my size, actually…”
“Gah! Shaddup! You’re supposed to appreciate your blessings!”
“Gyah–!! D-Diniel! Help me!”
Hannah called for help as Amy jumped at her, causing Diniel to snap to attention — and when she saw what was going on, she stood up from the sofa. A glimmer of hope flashed in Hannah’s eyes.
“I’mma go read a book.”
“Diniel!? Wait, Diniel! Help me!! PLEASE!!”
“Okay, now I’m gonna make you feel SO PROUD of yourself…”
“Amy!? Why do you look so scary!? AHH, HELP! SOMEONE, HELP MEEEEEE!!”
Ollie, hearing that scream, rushed to the living room. But by the time she arrived, there was only Hannah there, still as a sunken ship, her face buried in one of the sofas.
